PGA Tour chief and PIF governor to play in same group at Alfred Dunhill Links Championship Pro-Am

PGA Tour chief Jay Monahan and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan are all set to meet publicly, this time on the golf course. The duo is paired together for the opening round of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship Pro-Am.

The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is set to tee off on Thursday, October 3, with players teeing off at the three different courses of St. Andrews. The DP World Tour's premier event will feature professionals and amateurs teeing off together this week, with individual and team competitions simultaneously.

On Tuesday, October 1, the tee times for the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship were announced, and Jay Monahan and Yasir Al-Rumayyan are set to tee off together on Thursday. Monahan and Al-Rumayyan are paired alongside professionals Billy Horschel and Dean Burmester, respectively. They will tee off at Carnoustie from the tenth hole at 4 am ET on Thursday.

Eugenio Lopez Chacarra, Beltran Gomez-Acebo, Joakim Lagergren, and Mark Madden will tee off from the first hole at Carnoustie. At St. Andrews, Hudson Swafford, Peter Uihlein, Scott Mahoney, and Jeff Kelter will be the first group to tee off from Hole 1, while Pablo Larrazabal, Allan Stanton, Branden Grace, and Shaun Seeliger will begin from the tenth tee.

At Kingsbarns, Jens Dantorp, Drew Fleming, Sebastian Friedrichsen, and Tom Hartley Jr. will be the opening group from the first hole, while Matthias Schwab, Alan Quasha, Fabrizio Zanotti, and Bob Israel will be the first to begin from the tenth tee.

---

What is the current status of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf deal?

Last month, PGA Tour and LIV Golf officials met in New York, and reports stated that the rival circuits were inching closer to closing the deal. However, LIV Golfers declined the Tour professionals' condition of handing back the contract amounts to LIV.

"Other options include paying fines to participate in events, giving to charity, or agreeing to forfeit any future career winnings on the PGA Tour, the people said," sources were quoted as saying via Bloomberg.

As per reports, this condition could still act as a deal breaker between the two circuits.

For the uninitiated, the deal between the PGA Tour and PIF was first announced in June last year, coming as a shock to the professionals of both circuits. A new unified entity named PGA Tour Enterprises was proposed, but both parties have yet to agree to finalize the deal.

Since then, the deadline has been pushed twice. Initially, it was set for December 31 but was extended to April this year, and has since been pushed further.